So, now it’s over to me to let you know what’s happening in the world of RQA, so let’s see… Early bird conference bookings finished with a bang with over 70 registrations in the last week alone, but don’t worry if you haven’t booked your place yet, there is still plenty of time to secure your spot for the highlight of the RQA calendar in Leeds. You definitely won’t want to miss the chance to test out the new ‘Catchbox’ that arrived in the office this month. It’s the future of roving microphones and means we can play a bit of throw and catch during question time at this year’s conference!

Next week sees the start of the autumn/winter semester for RQA professional development courses and we will be running courses at two new venues alongside the traditional Madingley Hall where the majority of our courses will still be taking place. The two sites in question are both located near to Heathrow airport and make for easier travel for a lot of our overseas delegates. I will have the pleasure of sampling what the new hotels have to offer as I will be giving setup support at the first course at the Berystede Hotel & Spa in September and also the first course running at the Park Inn by Radisson London Heathrow in October. I am very keen to see if they both live up to our high expectations of what a training venue should provide.

Last semester we trialled a couple of courses using more of a paper free delivery and this is something that we will be working on developing further this course year starting with the introduction of electronic feedback on all courses moving forward. Next month’s GCP Auditing – Principles and Practice course will be run in this more environmentally friendly manner and our hope is to ‘Electrify’ (as we like to call it in the office) all courses over the next few years.

Also on the electronic front we have just released a new eLearning course entitled ‘An Introduction to Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP)’. Thanks to all of Carl’s hard work this is the first eLearning offering to be completely managed by our new Articulate software which is SCORM compliment and will gradually replace our current technology for all eLearning as time progresses. We have also released a few new webcasts this month so check out the ever increasing list when you get a chance.

In other news the programme for the first ever USA Regional Forum was released last week (full details can be found on the website) and the Annual Report is currently being compiled and will be available in the Members’ area very soon.

And finally this month’s social notes… Finishing our recent run of office birthdays we celebrated Tony’s this month (no more until December now)….. The second annual office staff BBQ was hosted by Jane and a good time was had by all – particularly those of us enjoying the Pimms! ….. And most excitingly building work at Isaacs bar next door has finally come to an end (no more incessant drilling, hammering, shaking walls etc.) so now we’re just waiting for some free pizzas for the office when they open the doors to Pizza al Taglio next month!